NEW DELHI: Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is among the top 30 Asian universities in the 2016 Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings.

In fact, this is the first time an Indian university has made it to the top 30, with IISc in 27th place.

Eight Indian institutions are among the top 100 on the list and India has the most institutions overall among the top 200 South Asian universities list of THE.

The rankings were announced on Monday, and it’s for the first time the list has been expanded to 200. In all, 22 countries are represented, up from 14 in 2015.

The other Indian universities in the top half of the ranking include the Indian Institutes of Technology in Bombay (43rd), Kharagpur (51st), Delhi (60th), Madras (62nd), Roorkee (65th), and Guwahati (joint 80th) and Jadavpur University in joint 84th place.

Also, for the first time Singapore took the first two spots with the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University in first and second place, respectively.

“India has made great gains in this list in recent years – just three institutions appeared in the top 100 in 2013 – but the nation still has a long way to go to compete with Asia’s leading university nations, such as China, Japan and South Korea, and scores particularly weakly on internationalization,” said Phil Baty, editor, THE rankings.

The expansion of the THE Asia University Rankings to include 200 institutions is excellent news for South Asia, allowing a greater number of institutions in the region, not just from India, but also from Pakistan and Bangladesh to be recognized and celebrated. However, Asia remains highly competitive for universities.

However, the South Asian institutions are “some way behind their counterparts in East Asia, particularly Singapore, China and South Korea, in attaining world-class status, due to a relative lack of funding and an absence of clear government-led drives to put leading universities at the heart of economic growth strategies, which has been a highly successful policy in East Asia. However, the are some positive signs – the Indian government’s move to select 20 institutions, across the public and private sector, for special funding and special report, to help them compete on the global stage, is very good news,” added Baty.

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